Full disclosure: Tank is one of my own cats. He’s a big cat, hence the name, and he’s full of purrsonality and charm. He’s also playful and affectionate with those he deems worthy of his attention. Just be careful when he’s chasing something… he’ll knock you off your feet if you aren’t careful.

This was the first filament painting I tried with the pet positioned on top of a background shape. For later pieces, I’m going to avoid having whiskers floating in the open without anything to stabilize them. Tank certainly has prominent whiskers, though, so I chose to emphasize them in his portrait.

Tank’s tabby stripes were an interesting challenge. After previewing the the 3D print file in HueForge, I chose to adjust the shadows and highlights for better accuracy.

I discovered after doing my first test print that I hadn’t set up my color library quite right. The white was more opaque in real life than in my software, so I adjusted the values in my software to match.

I also outlined his legs to make them more visible; they blended in to his belly a bit too much in my first test. Overall, I’m very happy with how my first attempt at a filament painting came out!